I am a Winner!

That’s not just a winter-sucks-chin-up-girl-positive-self-talk thing to say, although such a pep-talk is never unwarranted.

But quite literally. I have won some very cool prizes on the internets lately over the last couple of months. Mostly thanks to the wonder that is Prizey. And my guilty conscience forces me to interrupt my unplanned blogatus to say thanks. I won… Putamayo Kids Music, a tres cool funky ring (& barrette, which has been in my hair constantly since I got it), a beautiful book, which I am looking forward to reading with P’ito. I know he’ll love the cover: in his vocabulary all animals with fur are currently “CA! CA! KIKA! (kittycat).” Finally, I won a toy garage.

P’ito likes playing with the cars, and he keeps trying to use the keys to open other locked items: file cabinets, doors, etc. He hasn’t used them to open the garage yet though!

Prizey has become a little bit of an obsession for me since my part-time single mamahood began, in part because toddlerhood is kicking my ass, and once P’ito goes to bed, I have very little emotional energy left to give to anything.

Don’t get me wrong – P’ito is absolutely, ferociously wonderful. In the past couple of months, he has developed a fantastic sly mischevious sense of humor: hiding behind corners and then popping out at me with a huge grin, rolling over and playing bare-tushed sleepy on the changing table, turning all possible objects into hats or telephones – always with that little aren’t I cute? smile.

But when he’s awake I am constantly either playing with him or on alert: why is it so quiet? what does he want? He’s not super-verbal yet, so we stand in front of the fridge with him pointing and going “meh! meh! meh!” and I try to figure out – does he want the picture of Pili? The cat-butt magnet? The list of phone numbers? Of course, he wants the small choking-hazard magnet! He’s really into testing limits right now: looking at me with his arm raised and the nice-ecologically-sound-extremely-HARD-wooden-projectile-toy in his hand & smiling: “Watcha gonna do, Mama?” Throwing food is big right now. Taking a big slurp on his sippy cup, looking at me with that oh-so-innocent smile – and spitting milk down his shirt (insert maniac toddler giggles here). And OH, the tantrums, the YOU MADE ME PUT MY SHIRT ON! YOU MADE ME TAKE MY SHIRT OFF! boneless on the floor tantrums.

End result: hundreds of posts bookmarked on my bloglines to go back and comment on, and some excellent free stuff.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is warning consumers not to use certain jars of Earth’s Best Organic 2 Apple Peach Barley Wholesome Breakfast baby food because of the risk of contamination with Clostridium botulinum, a bacterium which can cause botulism, a life-threatening illness or death. Consumers are warned not to use the product even if it does not look or smell spoiled.

Yes, this age is definitely an exhausting one! I recently found myself going to bed when the little one does and waking up the same time, 12 hours later! And I am still tired! The dishes haven’t been washed in days!